The Tassajara Bread Book has been a favorite among renowned chefs and novice bakers alike for more than thirty years. With complete instructions on making yeasted breads and full of recipes for breads, pastries, muffins, and desserts, Edward Brown offers a unique view on making bread with care and enjoying the results.

Excerpt:

From Yeasted Breads

Tassajara Yeasted Bread (makes 2 loaves)

This is the basic Tassajara yeasted bread recipe, from which all of the others follow.

Dissolve the yeast in water.
Stir in sweetening and dry milk.
Stir in the 4 cups of whole wheat flour to form a thick batter.
Beat well with a spoon (100 strokes).
Let rise 45 minutes.
Fold in the salt and oil.
Fold in an additional 3 cups of flour until the dough comes away from the sides of bowl.
Knead on a floured board, using more flour (about 1 cup) as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the board, about 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth.
Let rise 50 to 60 minutes until doubled in size.
Punch down.
Let rise 40 to 50 minutes until doubled in size.
Shape into loaves and place in pans.
Let rise 20 to 25 minutes.
Brush tops with Egg Wash.
Bake in a 350° oven for 1 hour, or until golden brown.
Remove from pans and let cool — or eat right away.

Variations
The recipes in this section, with the exception of the Ricotta-Olive Bolso and two Focaccia breads, are examples of possible variations of the basic Tassajara Yeasted Bread. All quantities are for two loaves. For each recipe, proceed as with the basic recipe. Variations include the following:
• Water is partially replaced with eggs, sour cream, buttermilk, or mashed banana in some of the recipes.
• If you like a lighter bread (and quicker risings), use an additional package of yeast.
• The possible sweetenings each have a particular nature and are in some instances specified.
• The 4 cups of flour that go into the sponge are specified as “2 cups white and 2 cups whole wheat flour” or “4 cups white flour,” and so forth, as the case might be.
• For the 3 cups of flour in the second part of the recipe, the following ingredients may be substituted: rye flour, rolled oats, cornmeal, millet meal or whole millet, wheat bran, wheat germ, rice flour, barley flour, soy flour. If cooked grains or cereals are added, additional wheat flour will be necessary to compensate (or the amount of water at the start can be reduced). Generally only one or two of these grains or flours are added in addition to the wheat flour. When more grains are used, the bread tends to lose the distinctiveness of its taste. The use of rice flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, and soy flour in particular will tend to make the bread heavier and denser, although this is also true of any of the flours besides wheat.
• Use wheat flour as necessary to knead — more (or less) than 1 cup may be required.